Scotty's ashes blasted to space delayed

The Falcon X has been grounded due to technical problems. Too bad Scotty couldn't be here to figure it out.

Wake up Call from Sir Paul

Last night at Paul McCartney's concert at the Anaheim Pond gave a wake up call to the ISS crew here.

Star Trek Phasers a reality?

An interesting article in Stars and Stripes about "a new laser-based, nonlethal weapon designed to temporarily blind aggressors."

BTW Happy veterans day! Support your local veteran and the troops.

Wilma Damages Pluto Probe

The New Horizons spacecraft was in a horizontal position in a hangar at Kennedy Space Center. The door to the hangar is a cloth rolling door and can withstand 145 mph winds. Apparently Wilma blew the door open causing slight damage to the Atlas 5 rocket. It should be ready for launch around January 11, 2006.CNN story here.

KSC closed due to WilMa

The cape is closed today due to Wilma. Here is the Space Ref news release.
NASA's Hurricane page for 2005 has more pictures from GOES here.

Wilma heads toward KSC

Now we have to watch for Wilma to hit the Cape. HT NASA Watch here. I worry about the space program being cut from the budget because of Katrina and Rita. Now comes WIL-MA!

Last Titan Launch at VAFB

Yesterday was the last launch of the Titan rocket with a secret payload. This was the 368th launch of the Titan in the US and 200th from VAFB. Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 and Boeing's Delta 4 will replace the Titan. It's the end of an Era.

Pakistan Earthquake

Here is a picture from space.com on the earthquake in Pakistan. I just wonder if OBL and his buddies got buried there?

Satellite Lost

Here is the picture on the space.com site on the satellite launched from a Russian sub last week here.

NASA workers could have damaged the foam on the tank

Workers could have caused the damage to the foam on the external shuttle tank. CNN story here.

JSC received little Rita Damage

Johnson Space center received little damage during Hurricane Rita. All employees have leave until Tuesday.Here is the NASA link to RITA images.

Global Warming debate

I really laugh at some of the press and their "stuck on stupid" responses to the recent hurricanes and the global warming debate. I really think they should take some science courses or enlist some scientist types to report on science news. I googled for William Grey at Colorado State to get his forecasting for the current hurricane season. He has been studying the climate and its cycles for 40 years. I tend to believe the experts than the "celebrities" and leftist greenies that claim hurricanes are the cause of global warming. Dr. Gray said that if we were experiencing global warming then the activity of all Hurricane/Cyclone areas would show increased activity. No such activity is occurring. We are in a cycle of 25 - 50 years of an upswing in storms. Here is an except from his report:

The 1995-2005 Upswing in Atlantic Hurricanes and Global Warming
Many individuals have queried whether the unprecedented landfall of four destructive hurricanes in a seven-week period during August-September 2004 and the landfall of two more major hurricanes in the early part of the 2005 season is related in any way to human-induced climate changes. There is no evidence that this is the case. If global warming were the cause of the increase in United States hurricane landfalls in 2004 and 2005 and the overall increase in Atlantic basin major hurricane activity of the past eleven years (1995-2005), one would expect to see an increase in tropical cyclone activity in the other storm basins as well (i.e., West Pacific, East Pacific, Indian Ocean, etc.). This has not occurred. When tropical cyclones worldwide are summed, there has actually been a slight decrease since 1995. In addition, it has been well-documented that the measured global warming during the 25-year period of 1970-1994 was accompanied by a downturn in Atlantic basin major hurricane activity over what was experienced during the 1930s through the 1960s.


We attribute the heightened Atlantic major hurricane activity between 1995-2005 to be a consequence of the multidecadal fluctuations in the Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation (THC) as we have been discussing in our Atlantic basin seasonal hurricane forecasts for several years. Major hurricane activity in the Atlantic has been shown to undergo marked multidecadal fluctuations that are directly related to North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies. When the Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation is running strong, the central Atlantic equatorial trough (ITCZ) becomes stronger. The stronger the Atlantic equatorial trough becomes, the more favorable are conditions for the development of major hurricanes in the central Atlantic. Since 1995, the THC has been flowing more strongly, and there has been a concomitant increase in major hurricanes in the tropical Atlantic.

Rita Closes Johnson Space Center

The Johnson Space Center closed yesterday due to Hurricane Rita coming to shore. ISS operations have been transferred to Moscow Space Center. A team of NASA techs are on hand there. NASA's link to RITA here.

August activites

I have been busy with the summer activies of my daughter's to blog. Another flyby of Titan by Cassiniis here.
Mars Rover Updates: Opportunity here and Spirithere.

PodCast from Space

Mission Specialist Steve Robinson podcasts from space. (Very first one!) His take on the whole mission is one of learning. Humans will always strive to learn. It is our destiny to explore the Final Frontier.

At any rate I will close this very brief first podcast from space with a greeting to all Earthings and a thank you for your interest and support. Whether you support the space program or not, you're learning from it. You're learning from it the very moment you hear this and think about what we're doing. And I think that learning is what looking over the horizon is all about, and don't forget that learning can be exciting and fun, too, because that's certainly what this mission has been all about.

Our Prayers for Discovery

Discovery has detached from the ISS. Early Monday Morning the shuttle will land at KSC around 4:46 A.M. Eastern (1:46 A.M. Pacific).

Collins said she appreciates all the prayers -- from President Bush to strangers around the world. "We thank you for caring for us," she said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

"We ask also that you pray for our space program overall because it is a great thing for people all over the Earth. ... We believe in it and that's why we are doing this."


My prayers are for the crew members and their families also. The commander is right, we all should pray for the US space program also. The risks are worth it, to explore the heavens God created. May the loving arms of the Lord bless each crew member for the safe return of Discovery. Amen.

Gene Kranz on Shuttle Grounding

When the shuttle management announced a "grounding of the Shuttle fleet" due to the foam breaking off the external tank PAL ramp, I thought about Eugene F. Kranz and the Apollo program. Gene said during the Apollo 13 mission (and movie), "Failure is not an option."

Gene said in his op-ed that we took many steps in the Gemini missions to achieve a successful space walk. Buzz Aldrin's space walk in Gemini 12 NASA succeeded. Astronauts now train underwater to learn how to move in outer space because of Buzz's insistence to train for space walks.

We have to take many steps to get it right. Exploration is trial and error. Just look at our past and you'll see many failures and many successes. Our space program is too important to our Nation to just give up.

No more shuttle repairs

The 13 inch tear in the fabric under the commanders window poses no danger in Discovery's return on Monday. NASA engineers have tested the problem in a wind tunnel. Here is the AP news release.

Tribute to Fallen hero's

I viewed the touching tribute paid to fallen astronauts and cosmonauts. We as humans have suffered the cost of exploration over centuries to find new worlds to live in. Long live our fallen comrades. May you touch the face of God.

Bush support for Space

Some of my spacer activist colleges don't feel confident that President
Bush supports space exploration. One complaint was Bush does not mention space in his state of the Union speeches. (The president has more pressing issues, i.e like the GWOT, the economy, social security reform, tax reform, etc.) I disagree. When Bush presented his Vision to the Nation on January, 14 2003, he spoke directly to the people who count most. The NASA workers! The people who are doing the work in space. I was thrilled that Space exploration was placed back on the agenda. I support the low-orbit activities going to private enterprise (service the ISS, cargo shipping to the Moon) and the focus toward setting up bases on the Moon and then on to Mars.

President Bush interviewed with 5 papers yesterday and voiced his support for Space after months of silence. (Actually he did make a statement after the launch of the Shuttle last Tuesday.)

"I am confident NASA will be able to implement the vision I laid out and that is to use the moon as an exploratory base to go further into space," said Bush

(HT NASA Watch).

Today Bush spoke briefly today to thank the Discovery and ISS crew for taking the risk to explore in space. Godspeed Discovery and we pray for your safe return!